Job and self-justification
Hi C____,
I hope to see you at the church today.
On the subject of persecution you mentioned: as painful as it may be to think about, it is a reality that we can’t deny. Satan is ever ready to destroy any progress Jesus makes in His people. The devil is an ever vigilant foe. No one is a workaholic like that monster.
But God, who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will, knows how to make the best out of everything. He knows how to make something out of nothing. Fiat. And He uses Satan’s destructiveness for His own purposes to purify and cleanse us and glorify us. We are naturally reticent to pain, sinners that we are. Sinners naturally protect self, defend self, etc. When self is under attack, self cries, “Aaahhhh, I’m melting!” But self needs to melt and vanish away. I say this knowing that I don’t like the purification process either. Christ alone knows what it is to be clean to the nth degree. When He was made of no reputation, took upon Himself the form of a servant and became obedient to God unto death, even the death of Gethsemane and the cross, He proved forever what the total loss of self is.
But His followers will taste of the full cup the Bible says He drank, even downing the bitter dregs. “For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps:
Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth:
Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously:
Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.” (2Pet. 2:20-25).
Yet, God-given suffering is our glory. If He allows Satan to take a whack at us, He must believe in our steadfast love for Him. He has faith in us, as He did Job. Job was definitely attacked by Satan. In that story was the first record of the name, Satan. (Although, Job is older than the book of Genesis because Moses wrote it before writing Genesis.) So Satan was known by Moses. That evil spirit is not just a tradition of religion, but was alive and well to Moses before he wrote about the serpent in the garden. Satan’s presence eclipses God’s rays of life, and death naturally begins, as we see in Job.
But Job, as “perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil” as he was, was imperfect. He had woven self-righteousness into his “perfectness” and “uprightness.” “Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram: against Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God.” (Job 32:2). He desired to know God; and it was this that kept Christ’s protection over him and blessing him.
But Job’s God and Friend saw that it was time to bring Job up a notch higher and to dissolve that weed of self-exaltation. And He had no choice but to give Job, to a certain degree, into Satan’s hands, because of Job’s propensity to glorifying himself in his good deeds, consciously or subconsciously.
When we use our pretty moral life to recommend God’s love and protection for us, we open ourselves up to Satan’s attacks. And we do this all the time. It’s a life-long habit to unlearn. Self-justification is endemic to being a sinner, which we will be up until Jesus comes. And it destroys the power of the gospel, God’s work of His sacrifice for our sake.
The deepest form of pride comes in denying the need for redemption. And when we fail to surround ourselves with a knowledge of God’s work to save us; when we are not absorbed in His love for us, we fall right into saving ourselves. We have to be saved, somehow. Salvation is the earnest desire of every living being—saved from the gigantic hole in the human heart—an infinite God-sized hole. No one can escape this, it’s the human condition.
So we must be saved. And either we will do the job ourselves, which Satan encourages, or we will give up on that (if we’ve learned how much of a dead-end it is) and will trust God to do it. Through the sacrifice of Himself. He alone is worthy of paying the price for the reclamation of sin. How can finite creatures, unfallen or especially the filthy rebels, ever rate the redemption of sin and the blotting of it from memory? How can an infinitesimally nothing of a creature fill a God-sized hole? He is the only supplier of continuous and eternal life and love. Therefore, He is the highest authority of forgiveness.
So, when we deviate into self-justification for our redemption we walk into Satan’s territory and fall under his dominion, and God must let the consequences follow. As wrenching to His heart as it is, He must abide by the laws of free choice. But He is ready and present to bring us through it and out of it, as we see in the experience of Job. This is what baptism is about.
In the end we see Job a much humbler man. C_____, read the story again and you will see what I mean. And Job was also much happier too. His children were even happier. He finally learned what repentance was all about. And he discovered a deeper surrender, peace, and grace, true prosperity.
Christ said, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.” (Is. 45:7). But His evil is only and ever for the purposes of mercy. “Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” (James 5:11).
Blessings, sister.
David
I hope to see you at the church today.
On the subject of persecution you mentioned: as painful as it may be to think about, it is a reality that we can’t deny. Satan is ever ready to destroy any progress Jesus makes in His people. The devil is an ever vigilant foe. No one is a workaholic like that monster.
But God, who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will, knows how to make the best out of everything. He knows how to make something out of nothing. Fiat. And He uses Satan’s destructiveness for His own purposes to purify and cleanse us and glorify us. We are naturally reticent to pain, sinners that we are. Sinners naturally protect self, defend self, etc. When self is under attack, self cries, “Aaahhhh, I’m melting!” But self needs to melt and vanish away. I say this knowing that I don’t like the purification process either. Christ alone knows what it is to be clean to the nth degree. When He was made of no reputation, took upon Himself the form of a servant and became obedient to God unto death, even the death of Gethsemane and the cross, He proved forever what the total loss of self is.
But His followers will taste of the full cup the Bible says He drank, even downing the bitter dregs. “For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps:
Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth:
Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously:
Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.” (2Pet. 2:20-25).
Yet, God-given suffering is our glory. If He allows Satan to take a whack at us, He must believe in our steadfast love for Him. He has faith in us, as He did Job. Job was definitely attacked by Satan. In that story was the first record of the name, Satan. (Although, Job is older than the book of Genesis because Moses wrote it before writing Genesis.) So Satan was known by Moses. That evil spirit is not just a tradition of religion, but was alive and well to Moses before he wrote about the serpent in the garden. Satan’s presence eclipses God’s rays of life, and death naturally begins, as we see in Job.
But Job, as “perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil” as he was, was imperfect. He had woven self-righteousness into his “perfectness” and “uprightness.” “Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram: against Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God.” (Job 32:2). He desired to know God; and it was this that kept Christ’s protection over him and blessing him.
But Job’s God and Friend saw that it was time to bring Job up a notch higher and to dissolve that weed of self-exaltation. And He had no choice but to give Job, to a certain degree, into Satan’s hands, because of Job’s propensity to glorifying himself in his good deeds, consciously or subconsciously.
When we use our pretty moral life to recommend God’s love and protection for us, we open ourselves up to Satan’s attacks. And we do this all the time. It’s a life-long habit to unlearn. Self-justification is endemic to being a sinner, which we will be up until Jesus comes. And it destroys the power of the gospel, God’s work of His sacrifice for our sake.
The deepest form of pride comes in denying the need for redemption. And when we fail to surround ourselves with a knowledge of God’s work to save us; when we are not absorbed in His love for us, we fall right into saving ourselves. We have to be saved, somehow. Salvation is the earnest desire of every living being—saved from the gigantic hole in the human heart—an infinite God-sized hole. No one can escape this, it’s the human condition.
So we must be saved. And either we will do the job ourselves, which Satan encourages, or we will give up on that (if we’ve learned how much of a dead-end it is) and will trust God to do it. Through the sacrifice of Himself. He alone is worthy of paying the price for the reclamation of sin. How can finite creatures, unfallen or especially the filthy rebels, ever rate the redemption of sin and the blotting of it from memory? How can an infinitesimally nothing of a creature fill a God-sized hole? He is the only supplier of continuous and eternal life and love. Therefore, He is the highest authority of forgiveness.
So, when we deviate into self-justification for our redemption we walk into Satan’s territory and fall under his dominion, and God must let the consequences follow. As wrenching to His heart as it is, He must abide by the laws of free choice. But He is ready and present to bring us through it and out of it, as we see in the experience of Job. This is what baptism is about.
In the end we see Job a much humbler man. C_____, read the story again and you will see what I mean. And Job was also much happier too. His children were even happier. He finally learned what repentance was all about. And he discovered a deeper surrender, peace, and grace, true prosperity.
Christ said, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.” (Is. 45:7). But His evil is only and ever for the purposes of mercy. “Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” (James 5:11).
Blessings, sister.
David
posted by David | 5:12 AM
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